Smartphone camera round-up

High-ISO image quality is truly remarkable, allowing hand-held shooting in extremely low light Leica Apo-Summicron M 50mm f/2, 1/125sec at f/4, ISO 50,000

appear very obvious when examining high-resolution image files onscreen. So it’s best not to move the subject too far off-centre in your composition after focusing, which might explain why so many Leica photographers favour centred subjects. It’s also important to understand that the accuracy of the focusing is limited by the rangefinder base, which is defined by the distance between the viewfinder and the secondary window on the camera’s front. In practice, this means that it’s not technically possible to focus super-fast lenses consistently accurately. So if you’re contemplating pairing the M10 Monochrom with the £8,600 Noctilux 50mm f/0.95, for example, you’ll only be guaranteed accurate focus if you use live view. In this mode, the camera is smart enough to engage a magnified view when it detects the lens being focused, but alternatively you can zoom in manually by pressing the button on the front of the body. The focus area can be moved freely around the frame for use with off-centre subjects, and a focus peaking display is available if you require, in a choice of colours. It’s just worth remembering that the aperture will always be stopped

down to what’s set on the lens: this has the advantage of always previewing depth of field, but sometimes it can be better to open it up for focusing.

Performance Shooting with the M10 Monochrom is a very different proposition to anything else on the market. With its ultra-quiet shutter and understated finish, it’s extremely discreet. Like the rest of the M10 series, it’s about the closest you’ll get to the simplicity of the old-fashioned analogue experience, before the introduction of autofocus and multi-pattern metering. But the Monochrom comes with some unique provisos and quirks that need to be kept in mind, too. The camera is instantly ready to shoot, the moment you flick the power switch to turn it on. At this point you can choose to work in any way from either fully manual, to aperture priority with Auto ISO. Given that you can set the latter to use either a specific minimum shutter speed, or base it on the focal length of the lens in use (with the option of biasing towards high speeds to minimise any chance of blurring from camera shake), I can see little reason not to use it. Whichever approach to shooting you take, it’s important to understand the characteristics of the lightmeter. It’s not like modern multi-pattern systems, able to analyse and understand almost any combination of light and shade. Instead, you need to adjust it manually according to the subject, giving an extra stop or two when faced with a bright sky, for example. But equally you have to avoid overexposure whenever possible, because unlike with a colour sensor, there’s no way of reconstructing any lost highlight detail. Instead when it’s clipped to white, it’s gone forever. The M Monochrom responds to placing coloured filters in front of the lens, in much the same way as black & white film. Yellow, orange and red filters, for example, will progressively darken blue skies and provide additional contrast with any clouds. But they’ll also rob you of light, which potentially means requiring higher ISO settings at the cost of increased image noise. For outdoor shooting in good light, I’d probably use a yellow or orange filter by default. Naturally, battery life will vary according to how you use the camera. Shooting mostly with the viewfinder, with the occasional foray into live view and image playback, I found 350 to 400 shots per charge to be entirely realistic. But with no USB port, there’s no option to top the battery up in-camera. Of course the main thing we’re always interested in is image quality, and in a word, it’s sumptuous. In Leica’s hands, all of the theoretical advantages of a monochrome sensor become evidently real. At low ISO the M10 Monochrom is capable of recording a vast amount of detail, with exceptionally low noise and immense dynamic range. There may be no extra highlight detail recoverable in raw processing, but you can delve deep into the shadows with impunity. Even when noise becomes plainly visible as the sensitivity is increased, it has an attractive, organic character. As a result, even at higher settings such as ISO 3200, you can still indulge in the kind of extreme image adjustments during raw processing that are usually only workable with colour sensors when shot at their lowest ISOs. Image files are entirely usable right up to ISO 50,000, which in practice means you can get usable pictures in light so dim that you can barely see to focus and compose. However at the highest settings banding becomes visible in dark evenly toned regions such as night skies, frequently making ISO 100,000 files unusable.

CAMERA TEST

Testbench

Lab results Andrew Sydenham’s lab tests reveal just how the camera performs Our cameras and lenses are tested using the industrystandard Image Engineering IQ-Analyser software. Visit www.image-engineering.de for more details

Looking at image fi les from Leica’s 40.9MP monochrome sensor almost requires a suspension of disbelief. The camera can record a phenomenal amount of detail, with higher pixel-level defi nition and fewer artefacts than we’ve come to accept as normal from colour sensors. Images are exceptionally clean at ISO 160, and the pure luminance noise recorded at high ISOs is visually unobjectionable. This is a camera that gives fantastic images in bright conditions, while still giving perfectly usable results in vanishingly low light.

Resolution

With its 40.9MP sensor, the M10 Monochrom should be able to record close to 5,200 lines per picture height. It comes extraordinarily close to achieving this, not just at ISO 160, but also much higher settings. With no colour demosaicing required to develop its raw files,

RAW ISO 160 the camera gives an extremely clean rendition of our test pattern at ISO 160, and it’s only at ISO 12,500 that noise clearly reduces resolution, to about 4,600l/ph. Even at ISO 50,000 we register 4,000l/ph, which is the highest theoretical resolution of the Typ 246.

RAW ISO 12,500 RAW ISO 50,000 RAW ISO 100,000

On the right we show details from our resolution chart test pattern (above). Multiply the number beneath the lines by 400 to give the resolution in lines per picture height.

The crops shown below are taken from the area outlined above in red At its lowest ISO 160 setting, the M10 Monochrom captures lots of detail with practically no visible noise. But it’s remarkable just how far you can raise the ISO without any significant loss of detail. Indeed it’s only at ISO 3200 that we start to see a little noise creeping in, when viewing at 100% onscreen. But even at ISO 12,500, the M Monochrom is still capable of describing the canvas weave convincingly. By ISO 50,000 noise is swamping fine detail, but the visual effect isn’t remotely objectionable, so I’d happily use this setting when necessary. Not surprisingly ISO 100,000 is probably a step too far, due to the appearance of horizontal banding.

RAW ISO 160 RAW ISO 800 RAW ISO 3200

RAW ISO 12,500 RAW ISO 50,000 RAW ISO 100,000

Verdict

GOLD

THERE’S really no denying that the Leica M10 Monochrom is an absolutely beautiful camera. Its build quality is stunning, and the pared-back, minimalist design allows you to immerse yourself completely in the process of taking pictures. Then when you come to look at your image fi les, it’s immediately obvious that the new sensor is very special indeed. With staggering detail rendition, low noise and vast dynamic range, it’s surely a signifi cant enough advance to tempt existing Monochrom users to upgrade. I really don’t believe that any other camera under £10,000 could make better images. So to address the question I posed at the start of this review –can a camera that costs over £7,000, but only shoots in black & white, really make any sense? Naturally, this is anything but a mainstream product, and for most of us it makes about as much sense as buying a supercar. But for its particular niche, it’s close to perfect. It would be nice to see deeper integration of the touchscreen for changing camera settings, but that’s a minor criticism. For serious (and of course, well-heeled) photographers who shoot subjects at which the M-series excels such as street and documentary, the M10 Monochrom is little short of a dream. However black & white photography isn’t limited to these areas, and I’d love to see Leica drop this sensor in the Q2 and SL2 camera bodies too. More generally, Leica has yet again proven the real value of monochrome sensors. But with this new 40.9MP chip, it’s reached a new pinnacle in black & white image quality: I doubt any other camera on the market can quite match this combination of resolution and low-light capability. It’s a real shame the mainstream camera makers don’t share Leica’s imagination in producing a mono-only camera.

FEATURES BUILD & HANDLING METERING AUTOFOCUS AWB & COLOUR DYNAMIC RANGE IMAGE QUALITY VIEWFINDER/LCD

Testbench

SMARTPHONE ROUND-UP

Smartphones

Amy Davies takes a closer look at the best smartphones on the market with top camera capabilities Size options Many phones offer two different screen sizes; the only one here not to is the Huawei P30 Pro.

Lenses All of the smartphones in the group have multiple lenses, with all but the Pixel 4 featuring a triple-lens set-up.

Design Smartphone manufacturers put a lot of thought into developing attractive designs but you should always consider a case to protect your phone.

Data file

iPhone 11 Pro iPhone 11 Pro Max Google Pixel 4 Google Pixel 4XL Huawei P30 Pro Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Samsung Galaxy Note 10+

Screen size Storage Battery Weight Dimensions (HxWxD) Price 5.8in Up to 512GB 3046mAh 188g 144 x 71.4 x 8.1mm From £1,049

6.5in Up to 512GB 3969mAh 226g 158 x 77.8 x 8.1mm From £1,149

Native camera app How well the native (inbuilt) camera app works is a key consideration when choosing a smartphone, as well as the results.

Colours are evenly matched across all three iPhone lenses Colours and detail are both nicely rendered by the Pixel 4

iPhone 11 Pro

● From £1,049

● apple.com

THE LATEST Apple model, the iPhone 11 Pro, gets a triple-lens set-up and incorporates an ultra wideangle lens –something we’ve seen on a few different Huawei, Samsung and other brands’ models for a few years. Still, this being Apple, although a little slow to join the party, it’s now arrived with finesse. Both the iPhone 11 Pro and the larger iPhone 11 Pro Max share the same camera set-up. The triple-lens array adds an ultra-wideangle (13mm equivalent) to the existing dual-camera set-up from the iPhone XS, which offered a 26mm f/1.8 and a 52mm lens.

Recommended A slight tweak here is that the longer lens is now f/2. Although Apple has kept the native camera app simple, there are some interesting new features. Particularly useful is the way the display makes use of the different lenses to show you what’s happening outside the frame, which is helpful for composition. You can even switch on a setting to record that extra information, allowing you to crop and rotate at a later date without losing resolution. Another new function is Night mode that activates automatically in low light. Deep Fusion –something which also activates by itself (with no indication when it’s on) promises to deliver super-fine detail in such conditions. On the whole, image quality from the iPhone 11 Pro is fantastic. Low-light shooting is very good too, with Night mode putting in a fantastic performance, with detail rendered very well –especially when viewing at small(ish) sizes. If the budget is tight, also consider the more affordable iPhone 11, which features only the super-wide and the standard lens, but is otherwise very similar to the Pro.

Google Pixel 4

● From £669

● store.google.com

FOR A long time, Google seemed resolute in its determination that just a single rear camera/lens was all it needed –with zooming taken care of digitally via artificial intelligence. With many other flagships sporting three lenses, Google has finally relented and included two for its latest flagship model –the Pixel 4. Alongside the 28mm f/1.7 (equivalent) lens that we saw on the Pixel 3, you also now get a 48mm f/2.4 ‘telephoto’ lens. While Google likes to aim itself at photographers, it’s frustrating to note that the native camera app remains a very simple operation. There’s a fully automatic Camera mode, with no option to adjust any settings. On the plus side, you can shoot in raw format. Other than that, you get a Portrait mode (which you can use with non-human subjects, if you like), a Video mode and the much-feted Night Sight mode for use in low light. We first saw the extraordinary Night Sight appear with the Pixel 3, and naturally it remains on board here. The new addition to the mode is an Astrophotography option, which makes use of very long exposures. It should automatically activate when already in Night mode, when the phone detects that it is stable (i.e. when mounted on a tripod). The results are ridiculously impressive for a smartphone, and show off exactly what is possible with computational photography. In other modes the results are also very good. Colours are nicely saturated, detail is good and because there’s no manual control here, what you essentially have is an excellent point-andshoot –a bit like the iPhone, but at roughly half the price. What you don’t have is an ultrawideangle lens, but if you can live without that and just want something simple, then it’s an excellent choice.

Testbench

SMARTPHONE ROUND-UP

We continue to be impressed by Huawei’s excellent Night mode The Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ has a well-performing ultra-wideangle lens

Huawei P30 Pro

From £899

consumer.huawei.com

IT’S HARD to miss the headlines that Huawei has attracted over the past couple of years. Finding itself in the middle of a fallout between China and the Trump administration in the US, Huawei has been banned from accessing Android apps and updates on its newest phones. Since the P30 Pro was already in the market when the ban was announced, it escaped the veto. At the time of writing, it appears that there will still be continued support for the Android-system as found on this device. Without the support of Android, newer Huawei models –such as the Mate 30 Pro –have yet to be officially released in the UK, and may never be so. The same could well be true for whatever replaces the P30 Pro, too. For now, the latest flagship in the P range –which has been traditionally aimed more squarely at photographers than its stablemate in the Mate range –includes a triple-Leica-lens set-up, with an ultra-wideangle (16mm), standard (27mm) and a 5x optical zoom (125mm) lens. One of the things we like best about Huawei smartphones is just how extremely well-featured the native app is. Not only do you get a very well-performing automatic mode (simply named Photo), which allows you to just point and shoot, you also get a great Pro mode to give you extra control, as well as shoot in raw format. There’s also a plethora of other shooting options, such as the excellent Night mode, and a Monochrome option. Overall, image quality from the P30 Pro is excellent, with the 5x optical zoom lens being especially impressive for capturing distant subjects. The only downside here is that there is a relatively large gap in focal lengths as it jumps from 27mm to 125mm –you can get around this by using digital zoom for the lengths in between, which performs fairly well.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10+

From £869

samsung.com/uk

IF YOU’RE concerned about the Huawei furore, but you’re also keen for your smartphone to offer multiple lenses and a wellfeatured native camera app, then the obvious alternative is Samsung. The Galaxy Note 10 provides some very similar features, without the added Trump drama. There are two sizes, with the larger Galaxy Note 10+ also being available in a 5G version. Only the larger device has a fourth DepthVision camera, which is a TOF (Time of Flight) camera used for judging depth and distance –handy for creating shallow depth of field effects. Both the standard and larger sizes have three cameras which you actually shoot with. There’s an ultra-wide 13mm f/2.2 camera, a telephoto 52mm f/2.1 lens, plus a standard 26mm lens with a variable f/1.5-2.4 aperture. The native camera app offers a wealth of different shooting options, including a straightforward Photo mode which works as a point-andshoot, a Night mode for low-light shooting, and a well-featured Pro mode. The Note 10 also comes with a Stylus, which can be used with the camera as a remote release –ideal for those looking to do something creative, such as long exposures, as well as selfies and group shots. In the standard Photo mode, the phone will decide for itself which is the best aperture to use but you can take control of it in Pro mode, something which is unusual for a smartphone and is unique in this group. Overall, image quality is fantastic –with a good degree of uniformity between the three different lenses. Detail is also good, with nicely saturated colours. Low-light shooting is very good, but Night mode is not quite as finessed as those from the other models shown here.

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